← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 105/235
Contraparallel
A contraparallel, like a parallel, is measured in declination — a planet's distance north or south of the celestial equator — rather than along the zodiac. Two planets are contraparallel when their declinations are the same number of degrees but on opposite sides of the equator: one at 18° north, the other at 18° south. Imagine the equator as a mirror; the two planets are each other's reflection.
It is usually read as the declination counterpart of the opposition. The two planets stand at equal and opposite extremes, and the relationship between them is a see-saw: a tension, or a complementarity, that pulls between them. It counterbalances and offsets. Like a parallel it does not show on an ordinary chart wheel, and a pair can be contraparallel while forming no aspect by longitude at all. Contraparallels often coincide with oppositions in longitude, since two points opposite each other on the zodiac have mirrored declinations (planets wander a little either side of it, so the match is rarely perfect); a contraparallel without an opposition is worth noticing for that reason.
Orb
Contraparallels are kept as tight as parallels: 1° in most practice, occasionally 1½°. In the charts here the allowance is 1°, for natal charts and transits alike. Its strength is how closely the two declinations mirror each other against that 1°: 1 when they are exactly equal and opposite, 0 a full degree out. See orb.
Ease or tension
A contraparallel is read much like an opposition — a pull between two ends that asks for balance — though some astrologers find it softer and more complementary. Declination contacts are not counted in the ease and tension chart, which weighs aspects by longitude only.
In a chart
Read it as a polarity: what does each planet stand for, and how might the person swing between them, or learn to hold both? The Sun contraparallel the Moon, for instance, might show will and feeling pulling in opposite directions and, worked with, a good sense of balance between them.
In transit
A transiting planet reaching the mirror of a natal planet's declination makes a contraparallel by transit, often brought from outside, like an opposition. In the list of transits here, declination contacts are hidden by default and can be switched on.
Kinds and conditions
- Measured in declination, so out-of-sign does not apply; the charts here do not mark contraparallels as applying or separating.
- When a contraparallel and an exact opposition coincide, the polarity is at its clearest.